“We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future,” former US President, Franklin D. Roosevelt.

A nation’s future depends on its youth since they will be the future decision makers and stakeholders of the developmental process. One of the daunting tasks is to devise ways to enable our future generations to cope with the perils of environmental catastrophe. Thus, developing leadership skills and competencies in the youth is critical for sustainable development. Youth should be made aware of the choices available to them for sustainable growth. It is also important to impart the relevant values, attitudes and skills so that they develop environmentally conscious and display responsible behaviour. They need to learn and practice these skills to protect, preserve and restore the environment.

CLEAN-India (Community Led Environment Action Network), is a nationwide initiative on environmental assessment, awareness, action and advocacy. It is DA's flagship programme and involves school students and communities with the vision of developing cleaner environments for their towns and cities. This programme mobilises students and young professionals to prevent environmental degradation and improve all major towns and cities of India; through a network of 300 schools, 60,000 students, 800 teachers and 28 NGO partners in 78 towns of the country. It aims at achieving sustainable development by addressing environmental, social and economic goals.

CLEAN-India began primarily as an urban programme and is now expanding its reach to peri-urban areas. DA has a vision of expanding it both, geographically and thematically. The programme plans to provide adequate training and knowledge to explore and address various issues like WASH, waste management, energy conservation, climate change and sustainable livelihoods.

CLEAN-India Initiatives:

“The City I Want!” Campaign: CLEAN-India is reaching out to 10 new cities with a youth-led city campaign “The City I Want”. A brigade of Green Crusaders has been formed, in each of the 10 cities, which are working towards making their city a “Sustainable City”. Currently 10 Facebook pages are running for Mirzapur, Mohali, Vadodara, Alwar, Ambala, Bharatpur, Indore, Nashik Mussoorie and Rishikesh, for regular promotion of the campaign. CLEAN-India has broadened and increased its viewership by 8,250 audiences through social media (Facebook).

‘Future Fundas - Youth Immersion and Development’ … mind shifts for change: The ‘Future Fundas - Youth Immersion and Development’ is a five-day immersion programme for youth in the age group of 17 years to 25 years. As part of the programme, DA takes them to smaller cities of India, to help them understand the alternative approaches towards sustainable development. The programme aims to make fundamentals of growth and transformation more comprehensible to the youth and encourages them to develop alternative thinking for the future. It seeks to provide adequate training and knowledge to address issues of WASH, waste, energy and livelihoods; by developing a new outlook regarding communities living in the small cities of India.

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Managing City Trash Programme is designed to tackle the urban environmental nightmare of solid waste. With booming economies, the quantum of waste generation in India has increased tremendously. According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the space required for land filling has increased by 20,000% in the last 50 years.

The City I Want Campaign’ is a youth led campaign for improving the current environmental situation of the rapidly transforming small and medium sized cities. This campaign aims to initiate forward thinking on positive urbanisation by providing solutions to urban challenges. A 4A approach (i.e. Assessment, Awareness, Action and Advocacy) will be applied for solving the urban crisis in cities along with city youth.

Many Cities around the world including in India are abounded by diverse and rich flora and fauna within its boundaries. Yet urban biodiversity, is a neglected subject. Very little is known about these ecosystems.

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International NGO work is crucial in campaigns that mobilize citizens at the community and national levels. Currently, NGOs are critical contributors in global efforts to achieve the UNs Millennium Development Goals.